Elections in Dushanbe

We went to the US embassy yesterday morning to watch the returns. The embassy was majority and unofficially pro-Obama although apparently they can't really campaign or be partisan on the issue. There were some real elections geeks there which I was thankful for, because its impossible for me to spend the last year watching EVERY single primary and election debate and not care about county voting results (thank you new york times). So there were two televisions, one with the Russian news coverage and one with the CNN coverage via satellite. A third screen was set up with the New York time interactive map which showed us how many votes had come per state and per county and what they were voting. Indiana and North Carolina were nail biters, and Tennessee was pathetic.

When Obama finally got it, and came up for his speech the satellite television had decided it was done, and he speech was largely unintelligible. Everyone went over to the Russian translation and I was the only remaining person in front of CNN. I made out a lot of what he said but definitely will download it once I get back to high speed internet, which means until Washington.

I was so excited just to see him up there and the change phenonemon finally touched me and as I looked around at the lack of similar outward emotion on people's faces, I resigned to enjoy the moment alone. The thought of working under a democrat, pro-choice, pro-social policy, pro-diplomacy president gives me shivers...

My whole professional life has been under the republicans. I can't imagine what this will be like.